Image by Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

It’s called the Make Up App on the Iphone for 99 cents.

Basically you take a picture of yourself, upload it and boom enter the visual world. You can try shades of lipsticks on your pixilated lips to see which color fits your face. I’m assuming you could do this with other makeup essentials like eye shadow, mascara, blush, and etc.

The innovation was introduced by a 22-year-old marketing intern. According to the NYTimes, the application is hoping to have a mass appeal with big partnerships with an estimated $43.2 billion from the beauty industry in United States. The service is targeting young teenagers who are experiencing makeup. But the service is also receiving much attention from single professionals and mothers.

Look what else technology can do for the world.

Cut costs from samples companies offer.

Time-saving.

Much convenience.

Efficiency.

Shopping at canal street in the city is possibly one of the strangest places to hit on black friday. Who would’ve thought the black market would offer some amazing sales.

I’ve never heard of the watch brand “Patek Phillipe”. So I googled it, and saw some price ranges, which were about $30,000- $57,000. That would explain the reason why I’ve never heard of them. According to NYTimes, a clerk on canal street who usually sells them for $25, sold the watches for $20. This is my favorite line in the article; “Of course, Mr. Asif actually sells the “Patek Phillippe” brand — with an extra “l” — and his Swatches are tinny.”

You could also get name brand perfume like Maria Sharapova’s gift set for $10.

When we’re living in a recession, why not turn to the fakes? Besides from far way who could ever tell the difference.

I really like this article because the writer gives a good description of what the black market in Chinatown is really like.

But I didn’t go into Manhattan, instead I went to Gateway Mall in Brooklyn, which has Best Buy, Target, BJs, Home Depot, Target and a few other big brands. I went around 4p.m., thinking that time frame would be less crowded than in the morning. Unfortunately not…. there was a line outside to go inside Best Buy which had about 100 people waiting already. BJs was packed tight. Target had a section with HDTVs on sale surrounded by a mini metal gate… There was a line of 50 people waiting to get towels for $1.50 each. Plus there were like 50 cops in their cars sitting in the parking lot if chaos were to erupt. Let’s just say I couldn’t wait to leave.

I mean thank god for Black Friday, but it’s so fustrating.

But what I would really love to do is work for a broadcasting company like Travel Channel or Animal Planet. In my little dream bubble, I could see myself writing scripts and editing tapes. Even better, I would tag along the adventures and witness amazing things…DREAM ON…when I’m as shy as a 7-year old little girl.

Let’s get back to reality.. I should be grateful and lucky if I were to land on a job as a writer for Patch.

The class does open up your eyes on the real world, which businesses are doing well and those that are fading away. This gives you idea of what’s going on in the journalism industry while you’re majoring in it, and which direction its going in.

Rosenblum was a great guest, highly opinionated…but he teaches you to be smart, go for the money. It was refreshing and awakening.

I like how this class gives you the autonomy to determine your own grade. I think its graded fairly. The review for the exam was amazing. THANK YOU for taking the time to go through basically each term we did not understand.

So far no complaints.. well maybe I would’ve been better off without the quizzes. The readings were kind of hard to digest and understand completely. But other than that the course is great.

1)      I mean yes, I believe in order for good journalism to survive, individuals have to report stories without the mindset of achieving great amounts of money. There are so many aspects to look at though, I agree with Rosenblum that what the audience wants and what the journalist, or the church wants is different. We do need to realize that. I feel like Rosenblum’s VJ student, who filmed a woman addicted to heroine, did the story to address it as a major problem individuals go through, rather than having the mindset of doing it for money. Alexandra Garcia, the VJ winner also made an amazing story about free medical clinic in U.S.

It’s a very difficult industry to survive in. Morally you want to chase after a story that is newsworthy. But yet you physically you can’t chase after a story without the resources. For example if you are trying to chase after a story in another country. You need money to fly over; you need money for your stay at however long it takes to complete the story. Then this leads up to more money for hotels, food, and other living expenses.

In a way I do agree that we should seek the help of the business side, in order to prosper and earn profits. Maybe we do need to mix church and state for newspapers to survive.

In his blog called The Very Best Newspaper about UK’s The Guardian, he brings up a great point. Rosenblum said “If NYT or San Francisco Chronicle bought Craigslist, they wouldn’t have any financial troubles. They could afford to send the best journalists all over the world to do the best journalism. But they didn’t … so they don’t.” He brings up a good argument that if they bought Craigslist, more doors would’ve opened for them but now they are struggling.

2)      You have Rosenblum saying journalism is dead if it doesn’t embrace the business side, yet we have Brian Farnham, proving him that its not all about the money. Patch’s Give 5, truly shows you the site can focus on your local news stories, while giving profits back to the community. Patch donates free advertising space to charitable organizations and contributes their own time as volunteers. We also have SPOT.US today, a nonprofit source of journalism, where people are willing to donate their own money to help journalists get the news out.

I know my ideas and thoughts are contradicting. But I can’t pick one side over another. Its like the saying follow your heart, but your head tells you something different. Being a student with loans to pay, like we have to sometimes think about reality, bills to pay, loans to pay, living expenses, people have to eat and if they means mixing the dirty side with the pure side, that’s what it takes.

My other thoughts

3)      Should we follow this trend of hyper local news gathering? How successful has this really been? Farnham didn’t want to give information or numbers about profiting. He kind of just went along the lines when the question was brought up.

4)      Is Patch and Rosenblumtv pure forms of journalism when compared to traditional newspapers?

All I know is that we are living in a technology age and whether we like it or not, we do have to embrace the new ways of collecting information. We either embrace it or have to think of other ways that will allow journalism to survive. Like our project ideas, if they turned into real products or services. It’s just a matter of can we survive without the resources?

1. I see that there are local classified advertisements. I am really happy to see “Give 5″, where Patch donates free advertising space to charitable organizations and contributes their own time as volunteers. I think it’s an amazing feature on the site because it really shows how much Patch cares about the community. However I was also wondering does the site plan on putting up commercial advertisements to gain revenue?

2. What does it take to be the editor in chief at a site like Patch? How was the transition from working for major national publications to a hyper local website?

3. How does Patch recruit their writers? About how many writers cover a region? How are the regions to cover chosen? Are they the most populated? Are they the regions that demand a local website to cover their neighborhood news?

What does he think about Twitter ? The company had previously stated they had no intentions about putting up advertising.Twitter doesn’t make any profit but yet look at its soaring popularity. Does he think the company can survive without profit?

2. The definition of journalism is basically presenting news. Rosenblum said he doesn’t think journalism can survive without business. But presenting news doesn’t require it necessarily be on the internet, or television. Times Publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr. compares the print media to the Titanic, there will always be passenger ships, but they’re not going to be in the same business. So he believes print will still be here, even in decades. What does Rosenblum think about this?

3. Why does Rosenblum choose to use small, hand-held digital cameras instead of the traditional directors, editors, producers, and etc beside cost-effective measurements? How did this transition start?

4. In his blog Should Journalism Die,? he stated that he didn’t think journalism would exist without tv and internet. I disagree completely while observing past events.

9/11 – If we didn’t have tv and internet…we would still have newspapers and radio. Maybe it wouldn’t have spread as fast but people would have found out eventually.

For Obama’s victory, I went to purchase a print copy of the New York Times around 6p.m. at Penn Station train station. News stand guy told me they were all sold by 2p.m. So print will still exist without video journalists.

Newspapers provide something that video and internet can never. It’s tangible and provides a sense of intimacy. I find that most of the time an article is bound to give you a more detailed version of a story than tv or video can ever present because their time is so limited.

Just wondering if he reads the newspaper or magazine because those are still huge factors that play on the survival of  journalism.

Brad went to see Angelina at a hotel again?! Britney has met a new man!?! Let’s be real we sometimes need to drop the lies, and false malicious statements sometimes seen in tabloids.

Finally a new movie in production is taking a stand against celebrity journalism. Chris Atkins, the 33-year- old director of Starsuckers wants to acknowledge the fact that our society is obsessed with fame and scandals. He is using Starsuckers to show how the media has manipulated truth into lies, just so people will read and watch the lives of celebrities.

Atkins believes that tabloids failed the journalism check book. They either don’t fact check what they report or dig too deep for confidential information. For example, Atkins secretly filmed tabloid reporters as he offered to sell them medical records of celebrities’ cosmetic surgery. He used faked documents of Hugh Grant’s facelift and Guy Ritchie’s chemical peel. This was really nothing new that hasn’t happened before. If you searched Chris Brown attacked Rihanna on Youtube, you could see so many faked pictures of her face beaten up. It’s unfortunate that this happens. That’s why I give props to this movie.

The movie shows how far people are willing to go to reach the hands of fame. In one sequel Atkins sets up a booth in an English shopping mall, casting for children’s reality TV shows. According to AP, “The filmmakers recorded as parents happily signed waivers for their children to appear on shows with titles like “Baby Boozers” and “Take Your Daughter to the Slaughterhouse” — for which he filmed children cheerfully trying to decapitate rubber chickens.” I mean what is that? DECAPITATING RUBBER CHICKENS? I know if I were parent, I would definitely not take my daughter to this casting.

Some say Atkins is a hypocrite because he is tricking people into the fame and seeing what people are capable of. “Yes, we had moral qualms, but I firmly believe we’re doing it for the wider point. There was subterfuge involved to serve a wider public interest,” said Atkins. Let’s hope that this movie actually reaches out to the media. Let’s hope that this imposes them to feel some sympathy and guilt. Starsuckers premieres at the London Film Festival next Wednesday.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gSlGatp55XanTtYu0m-30MVUcfOQD9BJDON81

If you didn’t already know, Netflix has provided its “Watch Instantly” service for Xbox, TiVo, and a variety of HDTVs and Blue- ray players. Next month, PlayStation 3 owners have the option of streaming movies and TV shows on Netflix. We really need to take a step back and observe that individual businesses are merging with as many other business entities as they can to gain profit. Here we have a movie industry coming together with a gaming system, combining two components to make things easier and more convenient.

PS3 owners will have to order a free disc from Netflix and put it into the gaming system when they want to access the Netflix. Both companies said this is just a short-term solution and are hoping for an upgrade next year. According to NYtimes.com, “Sony makes its own Internet movie store available from the PS3, with new-release films and TV shows costing $3 to $4. The Netflix service is available only to people who pay a monthly subscription of $8.99 or more for its DVD-by-mail plan.”

The good thing about the PS3 is that the internet access is free, as opposed to Xbox owners who have to pay around $60 a year for Xbox Live subscription on top of the Netflix cost. Will this be a new trend, for movie watchers to view their content through gaming systems?

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/netflix-movies-stream-to-sonys-playstation-3/#more-22665

Thanks to Joe Dolce, former Star and Details editor and his media firm, the LGBT community may have a chance at creating .gay as a domain address.  The New York Observer said “Early next year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will begin accepting applications for new, and maybe even unconventional, top-level domain addresses besides .com, .org and .net. Not only will they be receiving one from the city of New York for a NYC address, but also from the Dot Gay Alliance, for .GAY.”

“The LGBT community has always supported itself and its causes – no one was there to help us,” Mr. Dolce said in the release.

I think this is an amazing breakthrough for the LGBT, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered community. For such a long time, the LGBT community has been oppressed and restrained from their civil liberties. This is a time when they have to unite and have their voices heard.

here is the main site to endorse this goal- http://www.dotgayalliance.com/

According to their homepage, Dot Gay Alliance, who created .GAY said it’s a community that gives back 51% of all profits earned. They will be returned to the LGBT community in the form of grants to leading civil rights organizations.

It’s a great cause and I hope the domain address is a success. You can show support by adding them on Facebook or Twitter.